Oakland joins Women’s March chapters across the country in hosting “Women’s Wave” rallies the Saturday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, kicking off a weekend of East Bay action with activist training on Sunday and local volunteering on Monday. This peaceful event will give people from across the East Bay and beyond the opportunity to activate their communities and publicly proclaim their commitment, in Coretta Scott King’s words, to “create new homes, new communities, new cities, a new nation. Yea, a new world, which we desperately need!”

Celebrating 50 years of recruiting black women to be actively engaged in public policy at all levels, BWOPA sees this partnership as a natural fit, shares local area chapter president LaNiece Jones. “We were one of the first partners for the inaugural Women’s March Oakland. After running many successful initiatives together over the past two years, the time was right for us to join forces to organize this massive mobilization of woman power.”

“We are grateful for the leadership that Women’s March Oakland and BWOPA provide in bringing together thousands for sustained, disciplined action. Marching creates hope, hope creates sustainability, and sustainability brings strength,” says Roy Wilson, executive director of the MLK Freedom Center. “Indeed, Dr. King teaches that mass action ‘is the social lever which will force open the door to freedom. Our powerful weapons are the voices, the feet, and the bodies of dedicated, united people, moving without rest toward a just goal.’”